A sports or outdoors photographer often will wear a backpack in order to carry his or her photographic equipment as well as her other gear. Equipment that is stored in the backpack is not readily available, however, because the photographer will have to remove the backpack from its normal position on his or her back or posterior side and shift the backpack to her front or anterior side in order to gain access to a compartment in the backpack. A photographic opportunity often is fleeting and can be missed due to the time needed to obtain a camera from the backpack. Alternatively, the photographer simply may not want to stop and remove the camera from the backpack due to the effort required.
A photographer wearing a backpack may choose to keep his or her camera more available for ready use by hanging it by a strap from his or her neck. This can be an awkward way to carry a camera for any length of time and exposes the camera to rain, collision, abrasion, dust, and theft. Alternatively, the camera could be contained in a case suspended from a shoulder strap, the sternum strap or the waist belt of the backpack or carried in a pocket of a garment worn by the photographer, such as a vest. These methods of carrying a camera will be awkward or impossible if the camera is large, such as a modern single lens reflex digital camera with a detachable lens. In addition, the camera will not be as protected as it would be in the backpack. Furthermore, other, perhaps untrustworthy, persons will be able to observe that the photographer is carrying a large and expensive camera.
Alternatively, the photographer may carry his or her camera in a waist bag (also known as a “belt pack,” “lumbar pack,” “lumbar bag” or “waist pack”). A waist bag provides some protection for the camera from rain, collision, abrasion, dust, and theft as well as being a comfortable means for carrying a large camera. A waist bag also is desirable because it can be rotated from a comfortable position at the photographer's back to his or her front where the contents, such as a camera, will be readily available. Users become uncomfortable when wearing a waist bag on the front of the body for an extended period of time and will want to return the waist bag to the more comfortable position on the back of the body.
However, wearing a backpack is incompatible with wearing a waist bag because the waist belt of the backpack, if it has one, will tend to interfere with the use of the waist bag. The backpack will also prevent it from being rotated to the more comfortable position on the photographer's back or posterior side because the backpack will be in the way.
Accordingly, photographers who need ready access to a camera in combination with a carrying system that will provide protection for the camera from rain, collision, abrasion, dust, and theft as well as having a comfortable means for carrying a large camera will tend to choose a waist bag but at the cost of not being able to simultaneously carry a backpack. This is a difficult choice for photographers in the field, particularly for those who must carry large amounts of photographic gear such as additional lenses, camera bodies, and a monopod or tripod, and possibly large amounts of non-photographic gear such as food, water, sunscreen, clothing, and other essentials.
Persons who are not necessarily photographers, such as backpackers, climbers, hikers, birdwatchers, and so forth, would find that a carrying system combining the advantages of both backpacks and waist bags will provide ready access to needed gear or other items while providing protection of the gear and other items from rain, collision, abrasion, dust, and theft, in addition to having the greater carrying capacity of a backpack.
Other designers have attempted to provide carrying systems combining the advantages of both backpacks and waist bags. A number of manufacturers have provided backpacks with a pocket, such as the top flap pocket, that can be detached from the backpack and either has a built-in belt or may be attached to a belt so that the pocket can be worn as a waist bag. Detaching the pocket will require the person wearing the backpack to remove the backpack from his or her back in order to reach the pocket and deploy it into its waist bag configuration. As noted above, however, the backpack and the waist bag will interfere with each other if the person tries to wear both at the same time.
An alternative approach is to provide a waist bag with a concealable extension and shoulder straps attached to the extension so that the waist bag can be converted into a backpack. This system does not provide the advantages of a backpack and a waist bag at the same time: one must choose one or the other configuration.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,770 to Covell for a “Convertible Waist Bag, Day Backpack and Shoulder Bag” discloses a multiple use pack that may be modified into any one of one of three types of packs or bags by opening or closing a zipper. As noted in connection with the above discussion of the waist bag with a concealable extension and shoulder straps attached to the extension, the bearer must choose one configuration at a time and cannot obtain the benefits of two configurations at once. U.S. Pat. No. 5,964,384 to Young for a “Traveling Bag with Expandable Storage Volume” also provides a multiple use pack that may be modified into a waist bag, a shoulder bag (a bag intended to be carried from a single strap passing over the top of one shoulder of the bearer) or a backpack, but only one configuration at a time is permitted, as with Covell.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,672,495 B2 to Sagan for a “Bifurcated Carrier Pack for Transporting Recreational Equipment” discloses a carrier pack for equipment such as a snowboard that can be worn as a backpack or in an unusual hip-mounted position in which the shoulder straps encircle the legs. The bearer must choose one or the other configuration for wearing at one given time. As with Covell and Young, the bearer cannot obtain the benefit of a waist bag and a backpack at the same time.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,527 to Von Neumann for “Modular Backpack” discloses a four-bag or unit modular backpack in which the middle bag may be removed from the main bag and used by itself as a waist bag. The bag components are connected with zippers or snaps. The main bag has shoulder straps and is usable as a backpack by itself or joined with the middle bag and a lower bag. Once the main and middle bags are separated, however, the bearer may be able to wear the waist bag and the main bag at the same time because the main bag is fairly short and should not hang down the wearer's back so far as to prevent the shifting of the waist bag to the rear as long as the wearer leans forward. Von Neumann, however, does not provide a modular backpack with a readily deployable waist bag. The person wearing the Von Neumann modular backpack will have to remove the modular backpack from her back in order to unfasten the middle bag from the main bag in order to wear the middle bag as a separate waist bag, which will be necessary if he or she wishes to wear it on his or her front side. Furthermore, once the middle bag is separated from the main bag it cannot be reattached to the main bag without taking off the bags in order to operate the zippers or snaps that connect them.
Perhaps the closest example known to the inventors of a carrying system combining the advantages of both a backpack and a waist bag is the Orion AW “beltpack/backpack” sold by Lowepro. The Orion AW “beltpack/backpack” has an upper pack that is connected to a waist bag with side release buckles. The user can release the waist bag from the upper pack by unfastening the side release buckles and then rotating the waist bag to the front. The user may then rotate the waist bag back under the upper pack but will encounter difficulty in reconnecting the upper pack to the waist bag by fastening the side release buckle halves to each other. (See http://www.lowepro.com/images/downloads/orionaw.pdf; accessed 27 Apr. 2006.) Some gymnastics will be necessary. In fact, some users find this operation to be impossible due to corpulence or lack of agility.
The waist bag must be reconnected to the upper pack of the Orion AW “beltpack/backpack” in order for the waist bag component to receive some support from the shoulder straps. The users who are unable to reconnect the waist bag to the upper pack will have to take off both components in order to reconnect them. Even if the user can reconnect the waist bag and the upper pack components without removing them, the user will find that the waist bag is not positively connected to the upper pack in such a way as to prevent some independent movement or wobbling of the components with respect to each other.
Furthermore, the Orion AW “beltpack/backpack” looks like an obvious combination of a waist bag and a backpack and therefore appears to be somewhat “gimmicky.” It may draw attention that may be unwelcome for a street photographer.
Accordingly a need exists for a carrying system that provides the protection and carrying capacity of a backpack but also provides a means for deploying equipment from the backpack for use by the wearer of the backpack without having to remove the backpack.
In particular, a need exists for a carrying system having a backpack that allows the bearer to immediately access desired items in the backpack without removing the backpack, and then to easily return the desired items to the backpack.
In particular and in addition, a need exists for a carrying system having a backpack that allows the bearer to immediately access desired items in the backpack without removing the backpack, and then to return the desired items to the backpack, without the bearer having to engage in gymnastics in order to accomplish these actions.
Furthermore, a need exists for a carrying system that provides the advantages of both a backpack and a waist bag.
In addition and furthermore, a need exists for a carrying system that provides the advantages of both a backpack and a waist bag that will look like a backpack when the waist bag of such a system is not deployed to the front of the bearer.
In addition and finally, a need exists for a carrying system that combines the advantages of both a backpack and a waist bag, and also permits the waist bag to be rotated back to the backpack.